Goldendaze-ginnie

Serene 86 year old looking to exchange insightful ideas and remembrances.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

I LOVE this …

Today
if you mention the Heimlich Maneuver most people know what it means.
This was not the case in the early 70's when my husband and I
attended a conference in NY City. One of the discussion leaders was
an unknown surgeon from Cincinnati by the name of Dr. Henry Heimlich.
We listened in fascination as he demonstrated his simple and easy
way to dislodge food from the airway of a choking person.

Dick
and I were both part of a Volunteer Rescue Squad in the small town of
Clinton Corners, NY and we couldn't wait to get home and tell them
what we'd heard. By 1974 the Heimlich Maneuver was launched and the
rest is history.

Now,
fast forward to this wonderful true
story about 96 year old
Dr. Heimlich today.
He is
a resident of a senior center in
Cincinnati and while seated for dinner recently
he noticed a woman in
distress. She seemed to be choking and he jumped to her aid, using
his life saving maneuver, and successfully forcing a small piece of
meat from her airway.

When
asked how he felt about saving the life of his fellow resident the
good Dr. said, “I
felt it was just confirmation of what I had been doing throughout my
life.”

It's interesting to note
that Dr. Heimlich had demonstrated his technique for years but had
never actually performed it on a living person until now !

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

FRNDOFBW ...

At gatherings when I
notice a person not drinking, or perhaps they say something that
rings a bell with me, I ask, “Are you, by any chance, a ‘Friend
of Bill W' ?” Bill Wilson was the co-founder of Alcoholics
Anonymous and that is the universal phrase that we in AA use to
identify ourselves to fellow members. My license plate, “FRNDOFBW”
is a shortened version of this and I’ve had many interesting
encounters over the years with people who understand what it means. It's usually horn
honks and lots of upraised thumbs but I’ve also had a few
unforgettable adventures and this is my favorite.

I was at a Stop sign
waiting for a large vehicle on the main road to turn into the street
I was on. He didn't have enough maneuvering room so (without looking
in my rear view mirror) I backed up. BAM ! I hit something and when I
got out to look I was aghast to see that it was a Sheriff’s car.
The Sheriff’s deputy turned out to be a really nice guy and he'd
seen that I was trying to give the other driver a little more room so
he didn’t charge me with anything. “Just be sure to look in your
mirror next time”, he said.

I was getting back in to my car when he added, “By the way I’m
curious. What does your license plate mean?” When I told him he
said that he was a great fan of AA. “I’ve seen many of the
driver’s that I’ve stopped turn their lives around with the aid
of that organization,” he said. Then he proceeded to chuckle and
he asked me if I’d been aware of what I hit when I backed into his
car? I guess I looked bewildered because he pointed to the front
grille and to the sign that was affixed to it. The placard read,
“BOOZE IT & LOSE IT”

“Now you’ll have
a good story to tell the next time that you go to one of those
meetings”, said the deputy and I agreed. I’ve told it often and
it never fails to get a big laugh.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

"Yeah ...

Have you seen the funny
Geico Commercial where the first thing you see is a group of
exhausted elderly explorers trudging their way through the snow?

The narrator explains, in a
hushed and laudatory voice, that these are intrepid explorers who are
finally about to make it to the South Pole when suddenly:

they
find that someone else has beat them to it – it's
Dora the
Explorer!
The men walk away in
defeat as Dora and Boots do a dance and call out “Yeah ! You did
it!”

Every
time I see that it reminds me of an incident with my husband Dick.
We were living in NY City and had only been married about a month.
He was notorious for being late to everything and I was worried
because we were meeting a bunch of my work mates and I wanted
everything to be perfect. We had reservations at a well known
restaurant and everyone was there except Dick. We were still in line
because it was a few minutes before our table would be ready and
suddenly I saw him rushing to get there on time.

Without
thinking how it would sound I called out to him … “Oh, yeah,
you made it. I'm so PROUD
of you!” and then turned all shades of red as my friends and some
of the people I didn't even know parodied me with comments like
“Dickie, you're such a good boy” and “there's
hope for you yet” and even “mama will show you how proud she is
later !”, etc., etc. Luckily one of Dick's strong points was a
great sense of humor and it didn't faze him a bit. He'd even refer
to it years later as the one and only time he was ever on time !

Saturday, May 14, 2016

...to 100 and beyond !

I know, I know, there are days
you can hardly make it out of bed and here I am writing about living
to be over 100 !! But, wouldn’t it be neat if we could do
that...and do it gracefully? (unlike the gal pictured here !!)

My info comes from a five year
study of 40 seniors who had arrived at the age of 100. Two doctors
followed people who were active, mentally alert, living on their own
and able to care for themselves … all from the United States but
from widely varied economic backgrounds. The doctors made an
extensive documentation of: daily habits, lifestyles, ethnicity,
weight, eating preferences, race and genetic backgrounds, as well as
spiritual and religious leanings.

At the end of the five years
these two doctors did a comparative study of their findings and came
up with some fascinating conclusions. They found that it mattered
little what the people ate or if they were prone to exercise…although
they did point out that all their participants were moderate in these
areas.

The exciting thing about their
study is that ALL of the 40 people had four things in common and,
remember, these were all people active and alert at the age of 100.
The four areas of commonality are:

1. A sense of humor.

2. A positive outlook on life.

3. The ability to bear loss.

4. A total dedication to
something outside of their daily life.

I would add that it helps to
stay healthy too, although I know a lot of seniors who have no major
illnesses and are still miserable. I'd rather follow these four easy
suggestions than be like them so get ready … you might be reading
this little blog for the next 17 years !!!

Monday, May 09, 2016

What money can't buy ...

Some of my friends
and I were discussing life's lessons and how we came to learn them.
It was a fun discussion but Ted's story won hands down for tugging at
heartstrings. It was when he was in his twenties and his wife had
left him in charge of their very active three year old daughter,
advising him to be sure to use the harness if they went out.

Since it was close
to Christmas my friend thought it would be great fun to go shopping
for presents with his daughter. He could just imagine the joy that
she would experience when she saw the dolls and other things that he
planned to buy. He said he was sure he'd spend much more money than
they could afford but, after all, it was for his little girl ! So he
attached the harness and off they went.

But, sadly, the
venture wasn’t turning out like he’d imagined. She barely smiled
and didn’t seem particularly interested in any of the toys that he
chose. She actually looked more bored than happy. He persevered,
however, and his cart was overflowing with goodies when he checked
out. With great care he maneuvered his little girl and the packages
out to the car.

He was putting the
gifts into the trunk when he felt a tug on the harness cord. He
turned to see his tiny daughter squatting on the pavement and, with
his heart in his mouth, he rushed to see what was wrong. Imagine
his surprise when she turned to him with a radiant smile and pointed
to the thing that was of such interest to her.

It was a single
flower pushing it’s way up through a small crack in the pavement...
a gift more precious to her than all the ones that he had
bought...and a great lesson learned for my friend.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Another New York Memory...1957

Once
again "Jeopardy" has tweaked my memory. The final question
was in reference to a picture that hangs in a NY City hotel. The
contestants saw this picture and were asked to name the Hotel.

I
was struggling to get the answer when the bell rang and Alex said
“It's the same hotel that hosted the famous Round Table” and I
knew immediately that it had to be the Algonquin.

It
also transported me back to a summer day in 1957 when I was living in
NY City. I had always been interested in anything to do with
writing (I graduated from Boston University in 1954 with a degree in
Journalism) and was fascinated with the stories I read about the
famous luncheons at the Algonquin that were attended daily by a group
of celebrated writers, critics and actors.

The
group dubbed themselves “The Vicious Circle” (also the name of
the picture, above, by Natalie Ascencios) and they met each day at
the Algonquin for 10 years starting in 1919. They would try to outdo
each other with witty remarks and practical jokes so you can imagine
what a challenge it would be to be part of that group.

On
the day that I found myself in front of the Algonquin I decided to
make it a memorable event. I geared up my courage and, hoping I
looked like I knew where I was going, I strolled right past the
doorman and took a seat in the elaborate lobby. It wasn't long
before the manager appeared and asked “if there was someway that he
could help Madam (me !)” I put on my most indulgent smile and
thanked him for his concern but advised him that my “date” should
be arriving soon.

After
about an hour of people watching and just plain loving the atmosphere
I made a big show of looking at my watch and rising in disgust.
Obviously my friend had stood me up and, hoping I'd fooled the
manager, I stormed out. He may have been fooled but the big wink
that the doorman gave me as I left made it pretty obvious that he
wasn't !